The Alpine Soil Partnership

Thomas Peham, Borut Vrščaj, Maria LegnerLinks4Soils project

Links4Soils (2016-2020)

Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Slovenia

AlpSPStarting Point & Driving Forces

Soil Conservation protocol of the Alpine Convention

Article 5

International cooperation

1. The Contracting Parties shall encourage stronger international cooperation among the competent institutions, especially with regard to the drawing up of soil registers, soil monitoring, the designation and monitoring of protected and impaired areas and danger zones, the provision and harmonisation of databases, the coordination of Alpine-specific soil conservation research, and mutual reporting.

2. The Contracting Parties undertake to remove obstacles to international cooperation between territorial authorities in the Alpine region, and to encourage solutions to shared problems at the most suitable level.

AlpSPStarting Point & Driving Forces

Study: Quo vadis soil protection in the alps, 2016

“The study’s key findings can be summarisedin the following thematic recommendations:

► development of a frequent and regular exchange between soil conservation experts of the regions and countries as well as

► information and awareness raising for the wider public and important stakeholder groups, such as agriculture, forestry or themunicipal level.

► …”

AlpSPStarting Point & Driving Forces

Workshop on the soil conservation protocol, Bad Reichenhall, 2016

Recommendations according to the World- Café results:

Networking of soil conservation actors in the Alpine region as a viable working group: Establishment of an Alpine-wide soil protection working panel based on national to local actors and soil protection experts (e.g. from science) for improved knowledge transfer.

AlpSPStarting Point & Driving Forces

Establishment of the Global Soil Partnership (2012) and theEuropean Soil Partnership (2014) by the FAO

©FAO

Pillar 1 - Soil management

Pillar 2 - Awareness raising

Pillar 3 – Research

Pillar 4 - Information and data

Pillar 5 – Harmonization©FAO

Links4Soils project key aims

• Build up of a soil information and decision platform

• Elaboration of concrete recommendations for soil management in the Alpine region (case studies)

Forest management, spatial planning, joining mountain agriculture & tourism & water quality, natural hazards prevention

• Soil awareness raising and capacity building

• Establishment of an Alpine Soil Partnership (AlpSP) and improvement of the implementation of the soil conservation protocol of the Alpine Convention

Objectives of the AlpSP

WHAT

1. Practice-oriented knowledge exchange on sustainable soil management, success stories and good practice examples in the Alps

2. Coordination network for the joint implementation of sustainable soil management and soil protection activities

3. Strengthen the implementation of the Soil Conservation Protocol of the Alpine Convention

YET ANOTHER NETWORK?

Cooperate with existing soil and Alpine networks European Soil Partnership (ESP), European Land and Soil Alliance (ELSA), CIPRA, Alpine Convention,…

Foundation of the AlpSP

WHEN

28th March 2018 - presentation of the memorandum of understanding and collection of first declarations of accession

WHY

Soils in the Alpine space: face specific challenges, varying, scarce

Multilevel, interdisciplinary and transnational partnership

WHO

Individuals and organisations

politicians and administrators, scientists and educators, practitioners, NGOs

HOW

AlpSP may act with the Alpine Soil Partners as link between the GSP (ESP), the soil science societies, the administration, the practitioners, …

… and gains its power from knowledge transfer and exchange on the regional level, supported by the international partnership.

05.2017

Ljubljana meeting

11.2017

Innsbruck meeting

03.2018

Grenoble meeting

11.2018

Munich meeting

05.2019

Aosta valley meeting

AlpSP & Links4Soils Milestones & Outlook

14.-16.10.2019Alpine Soil Forum Innsbruck

Objectives & framework AlpSP

Memorandum of Understanding

First Action Programme AlpSP

Regional meetings

Case Study Results & Best

Practices

Further implementation

of AlpSP

Current count:73 Alpine Soil PartnersAT | DE | FR | IT | SI

Achievements

Drafting AlpSP objectives and framework

Memorandum of Understanding

Promotion of the AlpSP and ESP on local & regional level (IT, FR, SI, AT, DE)

Enlarging the AlpSP membership

Questionnaire on the implementation of the soil protocol of the Alpine Convention

Participation of the AlpSP members in int. organizations (EUSALP AG6, Soil Protection Working Group of the Alpine Convention, …)

Become Alpine Soil Partner

HOW

1. Fill out the declaration of accession, directly at the info desk or send the scan to info@alpinesoils.eu

OR

1. Fill out the online-form onhttps://alpinesoils.eu/soil-partnership/follow-asp/

2. Use and benefit from the information provided on the Alpine Soils Platform and get active for sustainable soil management

More information:

www.alpine-space.eu/links4soils

Thank you for

your attention!